WILL SHE? No one knows what 2016 holds, but ou can already buy T-shirts like this on the web.

  • WILL SHE? No one knows what 2016 holds, but you can already buy T-shirts like this on the web.

Has the intensive work travel and schedule taken a toll on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton? Friends worry, a story in the NY Times today says.

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Well, sure. Perpetual jet lag and long days can wear a body down. Story says she’s spent 400 days traveling in the last four years and the equivalent of 87 full days on an airplane. Example:

In one 48-hour marathon in 2009 that her aides still talk about, she traveled from talks with Palestinian leaders in Abu Dhabi to a midnight meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, then boarded a plane for Morocco, staying up all night to work on other issues, before going straight to a meeting of Arab leaders the next morning.

The point of the story is to get at a possible 2016 Clinton campaign for president. Enthusiasm in some quarters is high. But …

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“I am amazed at the number of women who come up to me and tell me she must run for president,” said Ellen Chesler, a New York author and a friend of Mrs. Clinton’s. “But perhaps this episode will alter things a bit.”

Given Mrs. Clinton’s enduring status as a role model, Ms. Chesler said women would be watching which path she decides to take, as they plan their own transitions out of the working world.

“Do remember that women of our generation are really the first to have worked through the life cycle in large numbers,” she added. “Many seem to be approaching retirement with dread.”

Funny thing. I’m close to a woman who was one year behind Hillary at Wellesley and who just retired after 40 years of full-time employent. By my rough assessment, her vow to begin with a thorough reorganizing of her house has brought 30 pounds or so of new dust catchers and other assorted stuff via UPS. The spot on which stuff for removal is accumulating holds an ashtray and a set of napkin rings. But it’s early yet. I think more than household interests are in the cards.

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